Abstract
This paper discusses the character of Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie". It shows Amanda as an embattled mother who, along with her two children, lives in a world of illusions.

From the Paper
"Amanda Wingfield described by Preston Fambrough as an embattled mother is a woman desperately anxious to ensure that her daughter Laura will ensnare a suitable husband and that her son Tom will provide the support that Amanda needs for herself and for her family. The entire Wingfield family lives in a world of illusions or hopes. The thesis to be addressed herein is that in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie there are many different personalities living in ..."

Tags:Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

Abstract
This paper discusses two literary works and focuses on the hopes and wishes of the mother in each story for her family. The paper compares and contrasts Amanda Wingfield from Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie" and Linda Loman from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", in terms of how they wish their families to be treated. The paper contends that both women are passive-aggressive toward their children, refusing to see or accept them as they are. The paper explains that as a result, both women damage and eventually destroy, their much-cherished relationships with those they love most.

From the Paper
" Linda Loman, Willy's long-suffering wife in Death of a Salesman, although less out of touch than Amanda, is unable to confront Willy, the most important person in her life, about the depth of his misery, or his plan to commit suicide. When Linda finds evidence in the garage of Willy's plan, instead of insisting that Willy level with her, and then should seek outside help, Linda merely confides Willy's suicide plan to Biff, who is as emotionally helpless as his father. At the beginning, Linda tells Willy, when he feels confused and exhausted, "But you didn't rest your mind. Your mind is overactive and the mind is what counts" (Miller, Death of a Salesman, p. 1674). Here, Linda is on the right track, but only briefly. Soon afterward, she fails to note Willy's obviously exhausted and confused mental state when he says "Biff is a lazy bum" and then, a few lines later: "There's one thing about Biff-he's not lazy" (p. 1674)."

Tags:willy, biff, tom

Abstract
This paper provides an explanation of Amanda Wingfield's accusation of her son in the last scene of Tennessee Williams' 'The Glass Menagerie' with respect to the passage's dramatic irony in the context of the play in its entirety.

From the Paper
"Just prior to Tom Wingfield's long-foreshadowed desertion in the last scene of Tennessee William's 'The Glass Menagerie' Amanda Wingfield hurls a departing accusation at her son which is in the context of the play both a statement of the obvious and a dramatic irony. When Amanda angrily proclaims You don't know things anywhere You live in a dream you manufacture illusions she is besides berating her escapist son for his idealism restlessness ..."

Tags:Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, dramatic irony, fantasy, illusion

Abstract
Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" exposes the conflicts between the old Southern values and the brute force of the new, Northern values. Some of those conflicts in society - with reference to women's place in America in the 1940s - are reviewed in this paper, in order to present a psychosocial background into the characters Amanda Wingfield and her troubled daughter, Laura Wingfield. It also looks at how Williams painted literary portraits of his female characters with the brushstrokes from his own family experiences (his sister was schizophrenic) and from the society that he observed all around him and about which he held strong opinions.

From the Paper
"In the interest of offering further perspective on why Williams portrayed female characters in The Glass Menagerie the way he did, it is worth noting that when Williams was just five years of age, he suffered from a paralytic disease, causing him to be paralyzed. At seven, he was diagnosed with diphtheria. His mother, Edwina Dakin Williams, approached his difficulties during this period in his life by encouraging him to dream up stories and read. But Edwina is also reported to have been a pushy, sometimes smothering woman by a biographer writing for ThinkQuest (http://library.thinkquest.org). Indeed, his mother did not approve of him "...playing with other boys" and his father made him quit the University of Missouri to work in the shoe business. "

Tags:Laura, Wingfield, Amanda

Abstract
The paper discusses the play 1944 play "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams whose plot draws loosely on autobiographical material from the writer's own life. The paper shows how the play describes the main character (Tom Wingfield)'s anguished struggle between the call of duty towards his mother (Amanda Wingfield) and sister (Laura Wingfield) and his desire to "live his own life." Tom is also the "narrator" in the play who often moves in and out of the action. The paper discusses how, apart from the use of a narrator, "The Glass Menagerie" is notable for the use of music, screen projections and lighting effects that helped to create a dream-like effect that is appropriate for a "memory play." This was unusual for the time and challenged the naturalistic convention of plays of the period.

From the Paper
"The play is divided into seven acts and opens in the run-down St. Louis apartment of the family sometime in 1937 with the narrator Tom reflecting on his past memory. By speaking directly to the audience through the narrator the playwright makes a deliberate departure from the naturalistic convention of plays at the time. The essential characteristics of all the characters in the play are established quickly at the beginning with the use of this technique. Amanda is a loving but nagging and meddlesome mother who annoys Tom by her demanding ways. She is also apt to live in the past and far removed from the present realities of her life as she often recalls the days when she was a young Southern belle and a single evening in her past when seventeen gentlemen suitors came calling on her."

Tags:Jim, O?Connor, Southern, belle

Abstract
The paper analyzes the sources of the conflict between Amanda Wingfield and her children, and explains how this conflict contributes to the meaning of the play. The paper focuses on Amanda's control and how it leads to continued conflict and strife in the family. The paper describes how Amanda pushes her children to do things that she herself wanted to do, she tries to make them into people they are not, and she disapproves of anything that is not her idea. As a lesson from this story, the paper warns that controlling one's children only leads to heartache and despair in the end.

From the Paper
"This family, poor and led by a dysfunctional mother, is a poster child for conflict and misunderstanding. Laura, the timid and weak daughter, is so afraid of disappointing her mother that she will do almost anything to avoid it. She says, "When you're disappointed, you get that awful suffering look on your face, like the picture of Jesus' mother in the museum! I couldn't face it" (Williams 996). Instead, she lies about going to secretarial school so her mother will not be disappointed in her. Obviously, this is not a healthy or loving relationship, it is a relationship built on fear and misunderstanding, and that is the heart of the meaning of this play. The play shows a "typical" American family and the trials of that family, all based on dysfunction and control by the parent, and it shows how that can literally tear a family apart."

Tags:strife, dysfunction, manipulation, force, control, reality, memories

Abstract
This paper examines the four characters: Amanda Wingfield, the mother, Laura the daughter, Tom the brother and play narrator and Jim the gentleman caller in the above play by Tennessee Williams.

From the Paper
This paper examines the four characters: Amanda Wingfield, the mother, Laura the daughter, Tom the brother and play narrator and Jim the gentleman caller in the above play by Tennessee Williams.

Tags:analysis, character, play

Abstract
The paper compares the characters of Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie" and how they and the other characters deal with reality and illusion. The paper depicts how Blanche represents the world of fantasy and illusion while Stanley, her brother in law, represents the harsh reality of the world. The paper then shows how each of the Wingfield's are unable to cope with the reality of their poor living situation and each withdraws into a private world of fantasy. The paper highlights how Tom and Amanda each try to force the other to accept their version of reality, while Laura retreats into her world of the menagerie.

From the Paper
"A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, tell the stories of women unable to accept the reality of a changing world. Blanche Dubois in Streetcar and Amanda Wingfield in Menagerie are women out of step with the current times; they insist on clinging to a past that is no longer relevant, and lose what joy there could be in their lives. Both Blanche and Amanda are faded southern belles. This appears to be a favorite character type for Williams. Usually a Williams' belle is from a once great Southern family, that has fallen on hard times. These women had the finest of upbringing and expected to live a life of luxury. Unfortunately times and finances change. Neither Blanche or Amanda can adjust to a working-class life. They cling to the manners and customs of the past attempting to relive there days of glory."

Tags:fantasy, withdrawal, Blanche, Stanley, Tom, Laura, Amanda

Abstract
This paper is a literary analysis of how life imitates art in "The Glass Menagerie". The author examines how the character of Tom Wingfield greatly resembled playwright Tennessee Williams' life, and the Wingfields' family life was just as difficult as Williams' upbringing.

From the Paper
"Anatole France, French literary critic and author of the late 19th and 20th centuries, once said, "A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself." In his one-act drama, "The Glass Menagerie", Tennessee Williams was indeed drawing from an autobiographical well and it is written about his own family struggles."

Tags:drama, play, tennessee, williams, tom, amanda, laura, wingfield, rose

Abstract
This paper discusses the failure of the 'American Dream' in the play 'The Glass Menagerie' by Tennessee Williams.The paper discusses how the Wingfield family tends to blur reality preferring to live an illusion. According to the paper, this leaves the Wingfield family with continuous feelings of rejection, frustration and desperation.

From the Paper
"Initially, from Tom's end, he showed no conscious effort to redeem himself from the fact that will always be poor and underprivileged, in the midst of the affluent lives of other people in the society they lived in. However, eventually as the play comes to a close, he realized that he cannot always live his life based on simple aspirations and hopes fueled by his movie-watching. Interestingly, Tom's fascination with movies eventually became the catalyst for him to realize that life was harshly and radically different from the movies. The sheltered lives of people in movies are hardly what Tom and his family had experienced, a realization that made him hopeless and desperate, but also motivated to take action. "

Tags:Tom, Amanda, Laura, life, family, movies, escape